What Makes Rei Beautiful
by chocolate rules333
Summary: In which Rei has an embarrassing secret obsession with British popstars and Nagisa attempts to serenade him. This can't end well.


**Written for the Free! kink meme. Also, I love the idea of Rei being a complete in the closet fanboy of One Direction. I also love Nagisa making Rei uncomfortable. This ship is amazing.**

Nagisa lay sprawled out on the floor of Rei's bedroom, books scattered around him. Rei sat beside him, still enthralled in studying for the next English text, but Nagisa was hopelessly bored.

Nagisa moaned. "Rei-chan, can we take a break?" he whined. "We've been studying for forever."

Rei tsked in disapproval. "We've hardly been here for an hour. You promised to actually study when I agreed to let you come over," Rei responded pointedly.

Nagisa groaned and rolled over onto his back dramatically. "Why do you care so much about studying anyway? You already know it all." Rei ignored him and continued to read, so Nagisa relented and picked up the textbook, holding it over his forehead, but not really reading the words. After only a couple of seconds he gave up and let the book fall to the floor, staring aimlessly at the ceiling. And that was when he noticed something interesting.

"Hey, who are they?" He asked, pointing at the ceiling.

Rei raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? Stop trying to distract me, Nagisa-kun!"

Nagisa giggled. "Those teenaged boys on the posters on the ceiling."

Rei went white and the book slipped from his hands. "Crap," he muttered.

Nagisa quirked his head to the side. "Huh?"

"Those are nothing!" Rei squeaked. He made to rip the posters from the ceiling, but Nagisa grabbed his arm.

"What are you so afraid of, Rei-chan? There's nothing wrong with having posters of people on your ceiling."

Rei was blushing heavily. "They- they aren't my posters. They're my… sister's."

Nagisa smiled mischievously. He didn't know why Rei was getting so flustered over a stupid poster of some teenaged guys, but he was glad to have some distraction. And getting Rei riled up was always fun. "You don't have a sister," he pointed out.

Rei laughed uneasily. "Right… but… well… They're just a band that I definitely don't listen to."

"Do you think they're cute? Is that why they're on your ceiling?" Nagisa teased, poking his friend in the arm.

Rei's ears turned red. "O-of course not!

"So, what band is it? Why do you like them so much?" Nagisa inquired. Rei pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose to try and calm himself.

"You know what, Nagisa-kun, you're right, we're done studying. Let's go somewhere else."

"Why don't you want to talk about those boys?" Nagisa asked, raising an eyebrow.

Rei grunted. "If you'll just drop the stupid poster, I'll buy you strawberry ice cream."

Nagisa bit his lip, considering his options. On one hand, he could continue to tease Rei until he was inevitably kicked out of the house. On the other, he could have ice cream. He decided to go with the latter, but vowed he would figure out the mystery of the poster on Rei's ceiling later.

"Ah… alright! Maybe we could invite Haru-chan and Mako-chan too," he chirped.

Rei sighed in relief. However, he really should have known this wasn't over. Nagisa never gave up.

That night Nagisa decided to do some investigating on the internet. It wasn't all that hard. All he had to do was type "cute boy band" into google and the boys from Rei's poster were the first result. Apparently, they were a European boy band called One Direction and the heartthrobs of preteen girls worldwide. Nagisa could vaguely recall hearing about them from other places, but he had no idea why Rei liked them so much. Curiously, he researched their songs.

Upon reading the list of their songs, the situation made a lot more sense. Rei really loved to be told he was beautiful, and despite Nagisa's shaky English, even he could tell most of the songs did that. One of them was even called "What Makes You Beautiful". Nagisa contemplated using this new information as blackmail or something, but decided to store it away for later. He could be patient when he needed to be.

…...

Rei had been relieved when Nagisa so easily dropped the subject of the posters on his ceiling. It had been a careless mistake, Nagisa's visit had been so sudden he had simply forgotten to take them down. No one needed to know he secretly had a thing for five British pop stars. No, no one could ever know.

Now it was two weeks after his and Nagisa's study session, and he had nearly forgotten the whole incident altogether.

Rei was currently trying to fix his hair in the mirror. No matter what he did, one pesky piece kept sticking out and he was getting frustrated. If he calculated the exact angle the hair needed to be at possibly he could make himself look suitable.

"Rei-chan!" Nagisa shouted as threw open the bathroom. "What are you doing?"

Rei sighed. "I told you I needed a minute, Nagisa-kun."

"You were taking forever," the blond whined.

"I'm trying to fix my hair," Rei grumbled.

Nagisa raised an eyebrow. "It looks fine to me."

Rei sighed again. "It's a complete mess. No, it's not beautiful."

"The hair doesn't matter, you always look beautiful," Nagisa chirped.

Rei's took a step back as his face heated up. He tried to hide how flustered he was by turning away and pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. How could Nagisa say something like that with a straight face?

Nagisa laughed. "What, you don't believe me?"

"Please don't tease me like that, Nagisa-kun," Rei grumbled.

"I'm not teasing," Nagisa responded as he gripped onto Rei's arm. The flush on Rei's face deepened as he tried to back away.

"Yes, well, I should probably get to class," he squeaked as he jerked his arm free and fled the bathroom. He turned around just enough to catch sight of Nagisa smirking at him.

This probably wouldn't end well.

….

Rei managed to evade Nagisa for the rest of the school day. When class let out, Nagisa wasn't even waiting for him by the lockers like usual. Rei pursed his lips, trying not to feel guilty. Perhaps he hurt his friend by running away earlier or avoiding him in the halls. He knew Nagisa was affectionate with everyone and it didn't really mean anything, but when he made comments like that...well, it made Rei feel decidedly uncomfortable. He wasn't sure yet if that feeling was negative or positive yet.

He grumbled to himself as he trudged to the locker room for swim practice. For a moment, he thought it was empty and let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"Hi, Rei-chan!"

Rei yelped and leapt into the air, turning around to find Nagisa leaning against a locker with his arms crossed and a satisfied smirk on his face. "N-nagisa-kun! Don't scare me like that."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you. It is funny to see you jump though," Nagisa laughed.

Rei scowled. "Why are you here so early? You usually meet me."

Nagisa merely grinned at him. "I was worried after the conversation we had this morning in the bathroom. So, I decided to cheer you up." He reached into his pocket and pulled his pink ipod out.

"W-what, I'm fine," Rei stuttered, feeling more and uncomfortable with the situation.

Nagisa ignored him and plugged his ipod into a pair of speakers Rei had yet to notice, smiling deviously the whole time.

"What are you doing?" Rei asked desperately.

Nagisa seemed to take his discomfort as encouragement and pressed play. Rei's eyes widened as the oh-so familiar first chords began to play. He could pick the beginning notes from anywhere because he'd listened to the song an embarrassing number of times.

"N-nagisa, this isn't necessary," he squeaked.

Nagisa smirked again as he began to stalk forward. All of Rei's worst fears seemed to be realized as he began to sing. "You're insecure, don't know what for!" Well, sing was a bit of a loose term. It was more like enthusiastic shouting, but, nevertheless, Rei wanted to die of embarrassment. He stumbled towards the door, trying to escape.

"You turn my head when you walk through the do-o-or!" Nagisa continued as he raced around Rei and leaned against the door, effectively blocking any escape route.

"Those aren't even the right words," Rei grumbled, his face now a dark shade of purple.

Nagisa clearly didn't really know words, so he enthusiastically mumbled the next few lines before shouting again, "Being the way ya are is eno-o-ough!"

"Please stop," Rei mumbled, though he knew it was now a lost cause.

"Everyone else is the room can see it, everyone else but you-oo!" Nagisa dramatically flipped his hair and pointed at Rei.

"Baby, you bright up the world like nobody else!"

Rei moaned and covered his face with his hands.

"The way you push the glasses up your nose makes it hard to tell!"

"Nagisa…" Rei sighed, peeking through fingers, because he couldn't stop himself from watching this trainwreck occur.

"But when ya smile at the ground it ain't hard to tell, YOU DON'T KNOW-O-oof!" In his excitement, Nagisa had jumped onto Rei, wrapping his arms and legs around his friend. Unfortunately, Rei hadn't been expecting it and both were knocked to the ground with a loud thud.

"You don't know you're beautiful," Nagisa finished, looking very pleased with himself.

Rei groaned, reaching up to rub his head where it had been smacked against the floor. "That hurt."

Nagisa giggled. "Oh, sorry, Rei-chan." He shifted a bit and Rei became much too aware that Nagisa was essentially straddling him on the floor. If it was possible, Rei's face would have gone a shade darker. He looked away from the other boy quickly and tried to just focus on the song that was continuing to play. It didn't help him calm down.

"So, do you feel better now?" Nagisa chirped, grinning.

Rei scowled. "No!"

Nagisa pouted. "Ah, come on, Rei-chan, I really mean it."

"Mean what?" Rei asked, despite himself.

"That you're beautiful," Nagisa answered, a rosy blush coloring his cheeks.

Rei sputtered, but Nagisa pinned his hands to his sides and grinned. Rei was terrified to realize he really didn't mind having Nagisa in his lap or the way the blond's eyes glittered when he leaned closer and…

"Rei, Nagisa, are you okay? I heard shouting," Makoto called. Rei squeaked and tried to push Nagisa away, but not before it was too late.

Makoto eyed them uncertainly. "Uh… am I interrupting something?" he asked, a little flustered.

Nagisa laughed but rolled away and stood up. Rei half expected him to happily admit that he was trying to serenade him or something, but the blond merely shrugged. "Me and Rei were just listening to music," he said happily as he switched his ipod off.

Makoto raised an eyebrow, but decided to let it go. "Well, okay." He offered them a gentle smile before going to change. Haru walked in behind him, but he was mysteriously already in his swimsuit and simply went straight for the pool.

Rei turned away to also change. His hands trembled and he tried his best not to look at Nagisa. Would the boy really have kissed him? Why did he find that thought so… appealing? It was embarrassing to have such a reaction to his friend's little stunt.

"Well, I'm going to go make sure Haru is okay. Don't be long, you two," Makoto called.

Rei desperately wanted to call out to Makoto to stay. 'Don't leave me alone with him,' he thought. However, he did nothing but listen to Makoto go.

A few seconds later Nagisa was standing innocently at his side. "You okay, Rei-chan?"

The correct answer was no, he was not okay, but he could only grunt in reply.

Nagisa chuckled and smiled at him. Then, he looped a finger through the goggles Rei wore around his neck and pulled the taller boy down to his level.

"What are you…?" Rei tried to ask, but Nagisa didn't listen.

Instead he touched one hand to Rei's face and leaned over to whisper in his ear. "That's what makes you beautiful," he breathed, before pressing a surprisingly innocent kiss to his cheek.

Rei whimpered. By the time he had comprehended what had happened, Nagisa was already halfway across the room.

"Nagisa!" he squeaked.

The blond boy turned around, winked at him, and sauntered out the door.

Rei touched a trembling hand to his cheek, feeling the burning skin where Nagisa's lips had been seconds before, afraid he might explode from embarrassment.

He was definitely never listening to that song again.

**In case you were wondering, yes, I intentionally made Nagisa botch the lyrics. I hope you liked this. One Direction is not my cup of tea, but I feel they're perfect for Rei and his... interesting sense of beauty. Have a nice day! Leave a review if you want.**


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